Thursday

In the film Citizen Cane, the newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane (played by Orson Welles) says with his dying breath: Rosebud. Spoiler alert: if you haven't seen this film by now you suck: Rosebud was the name of his sled he played in the snow with when a child.

So, today I read that Roger Ailes died, the Fox News Founder who was forced out by the Fox News sex scandals.

It was a day not unlike today that they took Madame Blavatsky away. Russian born, she was a mystic. From 1848 to 1858, she traveled the world without a man. She entered Tibet to study with the Masters for two years, and in 1871 she went to Cairo where she founded the Society Spirit for occult phenomena along with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb). In 1879 Madame Blavatsky emigrated to New York where she impressed all with her psychic feats. She was no one-trick pony, she did it all: mediumship, levitation, out-of-body projection, telepathy, clairvoyance, and clairsentience.

Her first book, Isis Unveiled, appeared in 1877. In the preface she stated that the book was "a plea for the recognition of the Hermetic Philosophy, the ancient universal wisdom." And no doubt it was, for the Hermetic Society which still exist today, began with her book.

Just goggle Madame Blavatsky and you'll find pages and pages of opinions, good and bad. In his book, "The Spear of Destiny," Trevor Ravenscroft writes that the Madame was used by the Alister Crowley's "Golden Dawn" group along with soon-to-be Nazis party leaders to raise demons out of her... well... vagina. I don't know about that, but I do know she was a great woman in a time where woman weren't allowed to vote or have organisms, and so if she did materialize something good or evil out of her vagina, more power to her. Happy White Lotus Day!

Tuesday

Does God Exist? Some Scientists Think They Have Proof

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. Editor’s note: This is a revised version of the original piece. We have done so to make explicit the author’s expertise with regard to the subject of this article. We have also incorporated important context that was missing in the original version. The question of whether a god exists…

Monday

Mercury, who was identified with the Greek Hermes, is the Roman god of intellect, communication, and travel. He is the messenger of the gods and the patron of merchants and thieves. The Mercuriales, "Men of Mercury," was probably the largest Roman corporation. May 15 was their corporate holiday when they paid homage to Mercury to assure their continued success.

On his deathbed, between incomprehensible mutterings, Goya spoke of his beloved home on the outskirts of Madrid, on the banks of the Manzanares River. There, painted on the walls, was the best of his work, his most personal.

After his death the house was sold and resold, paintings and all, until the works were finally removed from the walls and transferred onto canvases. In vain they were put up for sale at the Paris Exposition. No one wanted to see, much less buy, those ferocious prophesies of the century to come, in which grief slaughtered color and horror shamelessly revealed its raw face. The Prado Museum did not wish to buy them either, and at the beginning of 1882 they entered its halls by donation.

Thursday

The annual festival of Cybele, the Megalesia, was celebrated on this date in ancient Rome. She was a goddess of fertility whose cult originated in Phrygia. Her male attendants were self-castrated priests and worship of her was wild and orgiastic.

Wednesday

Which State Has The Most UFO Sightings?

Just in time for Alien Day, a new book on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has settled the bet for where to head if you’re interested in spotting one for yourself — and no, it’s not Nevada’s Area 51 or Roswell, New Mexico. According to findings reported in "UFO Sightings Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015,"…

Tuesday

In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King, King Arthur's court is faux medieval and high Victorian at the same time. Any work of Victoria's poet laureate couldn't be anything else. But what do we know about a historical King Arthur? There are dozens of books about Arthur and his court. Was Arthur a sixth-century Romano-Celtic chieftain? In 1191, monks discovered the bones of Arthur and Guinevere in a ruined abbey on Glastonbury Tor. They took them to King Henry II, but the bones have long since disappeared. Were they genuine? Was the Arthurian court pagan, christian, or both? does it matter?

Was there a real Guinevere? It is possible that she is a Welsh triple goddess, for variants on the Arthurian legend say he married three women, all named Guinever. The ancient tradition says that the king must "marry" the land. If he is happy and well, so are the land and the people, if he is wounded, so are they. This is vividly shown in John Boorman's chessy but fascinating film, Excalibur.

Early in Lerner and Lowe's musical Camelot, Guinevere sings "The Merry Month of May" and invites several knights to ride with her. Then she meets Lancelot. What do people always remember about guinevere? She betrays Arthur, whom she loves, by sleeping with Lancelot. Like other Celtic goddesses (Maeve and Blodewedd), Guinevere can make a king through sacred marriage and unmake him by choosing a new hero. (Ardinger.B, "Pagan Every Day" pg 123)